Which case held that a criminal trial with a jury of fewer than six members violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees to a fair trial?

Which case held that a criminal trial with a jury of fewer than six members violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees to a fair trial?

• A. Furman v. Georgia (1972)
• B. Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
• C. Ballew v. Georgia (1978)
• D. Chandler v. Miller (1997)

Answer: (C)

Jury size is a fundamental factor in ensuring a fair trial under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Supreme Court has said the jury should be large enough to represent the community and to dilute the influence of any one or a few jurors. In the 1978 decision, the Court struck down Georgia’s five-member juries in criminal trials, holding that a jury of five or fewer fails to meet the constitutional guarantees. The reasoning is that a smaller jury increases the risk that deliberations won’t reflect a fair cross-section of the community and makes bias or miscalculation more likely to sway the verdict. Since the Sixth Amendment guarantees a jury trial and the Fourteenth makes that protection applicable to the states, the ruling declares five-member juries unconstitutional in criminal cases. Other listed cases deal with different issues—the death penalty’s constitutionality and procedures in Furman and Gregg, or a candidate drug-testing rule in Chandler—so they don’t address the specific question of minimum jury size.

Jury size is a fundamental factor in ensuring a fair trial under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Supreme Court has said the jury should be large enough to represent the community and to dilute the influence of any one or a few jurors. In the 1978 decision, the Court struck down Georgia’s five-member juries in criminal trials, holding that a jury of five or fewer fails to meet the constitutional guarantees. The reasoning is that a smaller jury increases the risk that deliberations won’t reflect a fair cross-section of the community and makes bias or miscalculation more likely to sway the verdict. Since the Sixth Amendment guarantees a jury trial and the Fourteenth makes that protection applicable to the states, the ruling declares five-member juries unconstitutional in criminal cases. Other listed cases deal with different issues—the death penalty’s constitutionality and procedures in Furman and Gregg, or a candidate drug-testing rule in Chandler—so they don’t address the specific question of minimum jury size.